This Starling first landed on my armrest and started angrily telling me something when we were in Shingwedzi. The temperature was 42C and I think he was hungry and too hot to find his own food, Obviously very used to people. I try not to feed the animals, so he hinted a few times picking up or looking at largish things on the ground as if he resorted to sign language with me. I then fetched my camera and took a few shoots of his antics which included dramatizing his imminent death if I do not supply food immediately.

Last edited by pietert on Fri Mar 22, 2013 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

We found this teenage elephant mother with its day-old baby elephant. They were completely alone with no other elephants in the vicinity. A Kruger elephant expert told us the babies of these very young mother have about a 50% chance of survival.

We were a little distance from Letaba when we saw this Leopard enjoying a meal of Impala Venison. After he finished his meal and left, several Hyenas came to view his catch. The catch being well outside their reach caused them to try all kinds of actions to try to shake the catch out of the Mopane tree, but they could not succeed. Much later, the Leopard returned and finished off the meal with a little donation of a few bones to the Hyenas. Enjoy.

We saw these two lions lying next to the road to Punda Maria Camp in the Kruger Natioal Park in South Africa. We stopped near them and watched for a while till they got up and walked onto the road giving us the following show... To us a very rare sighting.

Last edited by pietert on Thu May 09, 2013 6:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Wonderful video, thanks so much for posting this. What date was this taken ? I think we saw this same mating pair just outside Punda Maria on the 28 and 29 of April. On the evening of the 28th, they were right at the H13-2 turnoff to Punda and the next morning they had moved a bit closer to Punda, this time moving back and forth across the road. An amazing start to our trip !

Two males have been mating with a female lion near the S99 and H13-2 junction in the Kruger Park near Punda Maria Restcamp. They made noises right through the night. When we drove there the next morning, we found this lion apparently licking something off the tar. What tickled us though was the way in which he did it. Maybe someone can explain?

Pieter

Last edited by pietert on Sun Jun 02, 2013 10:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Nice sighting Pietert! We have, on more than one occasion seen how lions lick elephant dung and then also rub their faces and necks in it. Maybe this was elephant or buffalo urine? I know predators often roll in dung and urine of other animals to try and hide their scent. Have you ever seen a domestic dog near Hadeda poop?

I thought about the hiding scent one, but why will a domestic dog want to hide his scent?

In the case of this lion, it was almost in a state of hypnosis. Somebody suggested it might have been some of the female lion's urine it was licking. That sounds more probable because he looks so much in love there before clicking out of the trance and becoming a mature lion again.

Wonderful interaction between a mother elephant and her calf, Mother cruelly injured in her youth. Watch the subtle interaction between mother and calf with the calf helping mother get along. Take your time and watch that left hind leg.

Seen at the Punda Maria camp waterhole from the hide.Enjoy

Last edited by pietert on Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.